During my week of Monday 12 to Sunday 18 May 2025 a client project reached a significant milestone, and I was very happy. I’m sure it has something to do with my visit to the Three Sisters the previous Saturday. I also started locking in the podcast production schedule.
Articles
- The Weekly Cybers #68. Albanese announces his new ministry, Australia’s social media age restriction tech trials grind on, more AI stories, and more.
You can read my previous writing at Authory, where you can also subscribe to an email compilation of any new stories each Sunday morning.
Media Appearances
- My old photo of a baby eastern brown snake was used to illustrate a story about a totally different eastern brown snake loose in a swimming pool in Proserpine, Queensland.
- Even weirder is the same website using my photo of some random bloke’s head on a Sydney bus for a story about a bloke who grew horns in Russia. People do just grow horns sometimes.
- One of my photos of a gang-gang cockatoo ended up at Nombres científicos. Extracto de Preparándome para mi primera cacatúa ninfa.
- And I don’t know what the fuck is going on here, but photos of my broken old MacBook Pro have been used in some weird shopping page. I assume it’s a scam of some kind, which means it may well vanish, so I’ve archived it here and here.
Podcasts, Photos, Videos, Corporate Largesse
None of these. You can subscribe to my YouTube channel to be notified when new videos appear and when livestreams are scheduled.
Muskwatch
Elon Musk may be stepping back from DOGE but he’s still spending time with President Trump. Will it all end in tears?
- Musk tagged along with Trump on his Middle East trip.
- Elon Musk’s Tesla Robotaxi rollout looks like a disaster waiting to happen.
- Tesla’s board has formed a committee to look at Musk’s pay deal. With the share price so far down, maybe he isn’t really worth so many billions after all.
- And despite Musk and Trump trying to talk up Tesla shares, board Chair Robyn Denholm has sold a bunch of her shares, making A$820 million in profit.
- Furious former Twitter advertisers tell Elon Musk they’ve had enough of his tantrums.
- Musk’s AI bot Grok blames ‘programming error’ for its Holocaust denial.
- As the Financial Times asks, What has Elon Musk’s DOGE actually achieved?
- There’s apparently some serious drama brewing between Elon Musk’s DOGE and Trump’s MAGA.
Some Interesting Links
- Friend of the pod Erin Cook has started a new occasional newsletter looking specifically at the Australia-Indonesia relationship, Flat White, Kopi Susu.
- Project 2025 Tracker is what is says on the tin, tracking how many of US conservative manifesto Project 2025‘s goals have been achieved so far — and so far it’s nearly a third.
- Some drone footage of the new Western Sydney Airport and M12 motorway under constructions. It’s coming along quite nicely.
- ‘I dropped a C-bomb into Tolstoy’: one man’s quest to translate War and Peace into ‘bogan Australian’.
- Finally, some musicians I’m sure I’ve mentioned before, Electronics Fantasticos!, doing a stage version of their Electromagnetic Matsuri Parade.
The Week Ahead
On Monday I’m finally — finally! — editing and posting Another Untitled Music Podcast pilot two. Yes, it will be online Monday night. And Snarky Platypus and I have even scheduled the next two episode. The “real” episodes.
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Tuesday through Thursday I’ll focus on client work, mostly, because a second significant deadline is approaching — although it’s not a rush yet. On Friday it’s The Weekly Cybers as usual.
And then I’ll have a quiet weekend at home, given how busy the last three weekends have been.
Further Ahead
Yes, I’ve started adding in the podcast recording dates. [Update 21 May 2025: And I’ve added in a couple more since this was first posted.]
- UPDATED: The 9pm Edict recording with Erin Cook, 4 June 2025. We’ll be looking at the Australia-Indonesia relationship and other news from South-East Asia. If you’re a supporter with TRIGGER WORDS or a CONVERSATION TOPIC for this episode, please get them to me by 6pm AEST on Tuesday 3 June.
- NEW: The 9pm Edict recording with space archaeologist Dr Alice Gorman aka Dr Space Junk and astrophysicist Rami Mandow, 11 June 2025. If you’re a supporter with TRIGGER WORDS or a CONVERSATION TOPIC for that episode, please get them to me by 8pm AEST on Tuesday 10 June.
- Adelaide expedition, 26 June to 2 July 2025. I’ll be travelling with my good friend Snarky Platypus, and while there he’ll interview me about my home town for a more personal episode of The 9pm Edict. We’ll also record a half-way point analysis of our 2025 bingo cards.
- NEW: The 9pm Edict recording with Snarky Platypus, the bingo card half-year episode, 28 June 2025 (TBC). We’ll record this at some point while in Adelaide, and it’ll be posted around 5 July. TRIGGER WORDS or a CONVERSATION TOPIC for that episode? By 8pm AEST on Friday 27 June.
- NEW: Another Untitled Music Podcast episode 1 recording, Sydney, 12 July 2025, with the completed episode to be posted a few days later. If you’re s supporter with a We Will We Will Judge You playlist or a Recommend a Song to Us credit, you’ll get an email about that very soon.
- NEW: Another Untitled Music Podcast episode 2 recording, Sydney, 26 July 2025, with the completed episode to be posted a few days later.
- TechLeaders 2025, Hunter Valley, 16–18 August 2025.
[Photo: The Three Sisters, a magnificent rock formation near Katoomba in the Blue Mountains, photographed on 10 May 2025.]